"Looks like we end in a tie, Blue." His lungs burned from the strenuous workout. "I can't get free on my own. Don't suppose you're willing to release me for another round."

Before she could answer a bolt of lightning struck a tree across the park from where they practiced. Almost instantly, thunder rumbled overhead. They were both so focused on winning the wager they failed to notice the building storm.

Shadow released him instantly, offering her hand to help him stand. "Today may end in a tie, bounty hunter, but don't expect to be saved by the weather next time."

Another crack of blinding light sent them running for shelter.

Chapter Thirteen.

"Do you know how to use a bow?" Shadow asked after they finished their warm-up. He no longer suffered the stiffness of neglected muscles so his stretching was much smoother than when they started.

"Used to find a crossbow useful. It's been a few years, but yeah, I know to put the pointy end to the front and the feathers to the back."

She just shook her head at his answer-and the grin that came with it. This new Talon was hard to resist. His sense of humor would pop out when she least expected it and totally disrupt her concentration. Could he still see her aura? Did he notice how often her control slipped? She refused to think about why she was losing that control.

He no longer bothered with a shirt and his body already showed the effects of his training. Before, he had the lean build of a runner. This week he'd gone from 'four-pack' abs to a full 'six-pack' and she struggled with her growing fascination with his anatomy. That d.a.m.ned treasure trail is keeping me awake at night. I've known several men who shaved their chests. Why can't he?

"Something wrong, Blue?"

"What? No! Why would you think that?" She could feel the heat rush to her face. She knew what he was talking about. He caught her gawking...again.

"I was obviously mistaken."

She wanted to slap the smirk from his face. "I was mentally revising your training schedule. With your improved vision, the strengthening phase has progressed faster than I expected. Wait here."

Shadow raced back to her room, taking time to splash cool water on her heated face. Grabbing her quiver and bow, she headed back to Talon at a more sedate pace to give herself a few extra minutes to gather her shattered self-control.

He was just where he was when she left except he now wore his shirt. If she wanted him dressed why was she so p.i.s.sed off that he was now fully covered?

Because I'm losing my freakin' mind!

"Do you remember where the game trails were when you lived here?" She asked, handing him the weapon.

"Maybe. I was only twelve when I left. My father was a scholar so he never took me hunting. I remember some of the older boys talking about where they went up into the foothills. I've hunted for survival but I still don't see how man can call it a sport."

"Do the best you can. There are fifteen arrows in the quiver. I expect there to be the same number when you get back and...."

"I know-don't talk to strangers and be back before dark."

"I was going to say be careful. You kill it. I'll cook it. Now, go."

"Bossy and beautiful," he muttered just loud enough for her to hear.

He thinks I'm beautiful? Oh, h.e.l.l no! d.a.m.n it! I will not fall for that...that...man!

Pushing all thoughts of Talon and his pecs and abs and treasure trail to the place in her head reserved for anything she needed to examine 'later', she headed for the library. Talon was right about one thing. There were thousands and thousands of books there but with a major portion of the roof gone, most were too damaged by the elements and local wildlife to be salvaged. Her heart squeezed at the loss of so much knowledge.

Yesterday, just before it got too dark to see without a lantern, she spotted a small door beneath the skeletal remains of a spiral staircase. That was her goal for today. Talon would be gone for hours and she wanted to see what was in that room.

It felt good-better than good-to have a weapon in his hand again. He never thought it would happen. Kierin's little bits of rock changed his life. Again. Man's most basic instincts came from the need to provide food and shelter. The limits of the original crystal implants allowed him to function-barely. Now...now, he could see where he was walking without constantly touching a wall. It took months before he learned which buildings kept chairs or benches or merchandise stacked next to their walls. The laughter of countless witnesses to his clumsiness ate at his sense of self-worth like acid. He suffered myriad bruises and busted lips; broke his nose four times; dislocated every finger on both hands attempting to break his fall; even broke a couple of ribs when he landed on the edge of an open keg. Not a single, living soul asked if he was hurt or if he needed a medic.

Shaking the memories away, Talon focused on his a.s.signment. The game trails would be difficult to locate after twenty years. Even more so for him because he wasn't sure where they were to begin with. He must have explored some of them while growing up but never with the idea of killing anything.

Talon watched the changing shades of trees and underbrush. He remembered asking his mother why she only painted near the ocean. She said nothing away from the water inspired her art. He shut down those memories before they could morph into the nightmare of the last hours of her life.

It was more of a struggle than he imagined to navigate his way through the heavily overgrown brush. Th.o.r.n.y vines clung to the shoulder-high vegetation and threatened to rip the hide from his bones.

"I need to find a jungle knife for next time." He mumbled, wishing he had one of the two-foot long blades.

It took more than an hour to reach the first of six plateaus that made up this side of the mountain. It wasn't really tall enough to be considered a mountain but it was definitely more than a foothill. He remembered a couple of boys talking about their first hunting trip to the 'lower steppe'. His understanding of the term steppe was a flat gra.s.sland. This was certainly flat but the gra.s.sland the boys talked about was long since thickly covered with brush for as far as he could see.

Sitting on a fallen log, Talon reached for the water skin. Before he could quench his thirst, he realized the birds and insects were suddenly silent. It could be nothing more than his presence but that itchy feeling on the back of his neck told him he was being watched. Funny how you take the tweets and chirps and buzzing for granted until they're gone.

Slowly and carefully, he replaced the skin and pulled the string taut on the bow. With an arrow notched just in case, he stood and listened for any sound. He and Shadow should be the only two people on the island. It was possible that someone was here, but they had found no evidence of recent human habitation. To his right he caught the rustle of something moving through the brush. Scarcely daring to breathe, Talon raised the arrow a little higher...waiting...watching.

The sight of an eldorak picking his way through the undergrowth made him smile. Sorry, fella, but your magnificence isn't enough to keep you off my dinner table. He took aim and let the arrow fly. He must have made some small sound just before releasing the arrow because the eldorak looked in his direction then took off through the trees. The arrow hit him in his rear haunch. It would slow him down but it wasn't a kill shot.

"Dammit!" He yelled, grabbing his gear and jogging after the animal. He couldn't leave a wounded animal for other predators. At lease the blood trail would be easy to follow. With his new vision the blood glowed a pale green. Since the big male was heading away from the village, it was going to be a long, slow process to get the meat down to Shadow. That thing would still weigh over a hundred pounds after it was gutted.

"Next time I'll shoot a small doe instead of a buck." He grumbled as he fought the tangled vines wrapping themselves around his arms.

Shadow picked her way carefully around the mounds of molding books. Just yesterday she knocked over a small pile and disturbed a nest of rodents. Not all of the residents were as harmless as the family of field mice. The deadlier critters usually warned the unwary with a strong odor or noise. The last thing she wanted to disturb was something with fangs, teeth, or stingers.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she reached the small door. This would be her final excursion into the old library. The damage to the vast knowledge that once filled the building was too ma.s.sive. She hadn't found a single salvageable book. The small door, less than half the height of a regular door, was her last hope.

The years of rain and cold caused the wood to swell. It took some serious pulling before she managed to open the door enough for her to enter. She pulled the small lantern from her pack, grateful for the powerful beam. The s.p.a.ce was maybe eight feet square and half that tall. Crawling to the center of the room, Shadow trailed the light over the walls. It looked like a storage room. The wall to her right had three narrow shelves with what looked like holo-disks like commercial s.p.a.cecraft used to entertain the pa.s.sengers on long flights. She picked a couple of the disks at random and slipped them into her pocket in case she located a player. The opposite wall was a mystery. A quick examination of several of the large books on the two shelves showed numbers in several columns. She couldn't translate the words but they appeared to be ledgers, possibly the library's financial doc.u.ments. Again she slipped one into her pack to show Talon.

The back wall was a cabinet with double doors and ornate, gilded handles. When she reached for the handle, that tingling, static electricity feeling you get when your instincts are screaming at you that something momentous is about to happen washed over her. "s.h.i.t." She whispered, wiping her hands against her pant legs. "What the h.e.l.l is that about?"

With a deep breath, she grabbed the handle with one hand and aimed the lantern with the other. The reality was kind of anti-climactic. The only item in the roomy cabinet was a large book. It was easily three feet tall, two feet wide, and a good eight inches thick. The spine and corners of both covers were gold. Two substantial clasps, also gold, held the book closed. Whatever this book contained, it was valuable. How did Draagon and his goons miss something like this? It was almost too heavy to pick up. No way could she carry this back to her room.

"Think, woman! You need a wagon or freight trolley but you haven't found one of those." She suddenly remembered finding a large piece of canvas in one of the houses, but which one? Talon said it was probably a sail.

"Sail. Sail. Sail." She whispered over and over, trying to trigger the memory. "The grey house!" It was the color of the sea during a storm. "And it's just across the road."

Within minutes she was back, dragging the large sheet of canvas behind her. Folding the material so that several layers were between the book and the ground, she carefully lowered the volume onto the center of the canvas. After gathering her gear, she grabbed the four corners of her makeshift sled and slowly started working her way back. She figured it was close to half a mile to the house she shared with Talon. If she stayed on the gra.s.s as much as possible the canvas should hold out until she got there.

It took close to an hour to make the short walk because she didn't want to risk damaging her precious find. Getting it up the steps was a little tricky but after that her emergency sled slipped across the wooden floors with ease. Once in her room she was confronted with the problem of where to put it. It wouldn't fit into the chest with her other treasures and she wouldn't consider putting it there in the first place since pulling it in and out might damage it. She finally settled on sliding it under her bed and using the canvas to move it when she wanted to read it-if she could read it.

"Only one way to find out." She mumbled, carefully flipping open the golden latches. Holding her breath, Shadow lifted the cover. "Oh, my!" She whispered in awe. "It's in a language I know." Her fingers traced the words on the first page.

"Herein is recorded the annals of Ta'Londal-Ar including what we know of the Old Ones as pa.s.sed down through oral histories.

"That date can't be right." She made the conversion in her head-twice just to be sure. "This record was started more than five thousand years ago!"

Chapter Fourteen.

Talon caught up with the wounded eldorak at the edge of a small creek. Somewhere along the way the arrow shaft had broken, leaving the arrowhead and a jagged stump of wood. The animal struggled to breathe and could no longer remain standing. His will to live couldn't defy blood loss.

Another arrow, into his heart this time, put him out of his misery. The knife Talon carried in a scabbard strapped to his ankle was commonly called a 'gambler' because anyone who thought it was good for self-defense was gambling with his life. The blade was about four inches long and folded over into the handle for safety. It was going to take hours to remove the head. Even longer to gut and clean the eldorak. He'd be lucky to get back before midnight.

"Guess I get to check out how my new eyes work in the dark." After removing his boots and clothes, he dragged the carca.s.s into the shallow creek and started his least favorite part of hunting. The process was every bit as b.l.o.o.d.y and nauseating as he expected.

Three hours later Talon washed the last of the blood from his hands and grabbed his pants and boots. The sun was already heading toward sunset and he had a good two to three hour hike back to the village. Walking upstream from his impromptu butcher shop he refilled the water skin and washed away the gore.

Using his shirt, he tied the bow and quiver to the eldorak, shoved the water skin into a cargo pocket on his pants and hoisted the carca.s.s across his shoulders.

"d.a.m.n, you're still a heavy b.a.s.t.a.r.d! I guessed you would dress out to a good hundred pounds, but I think you beat that by at least fifty more." s.h.i.t! I'm talking to a frickin hunk of b.l.o.o.d.y meat.

He hadn't gone more than a mile before the muscles in his back and shoulders burned with the strain of the extra weight. The edge of the 'steppe' was another hour away if he could maintain his current pace. No way in h.e.l.l was he making it before dark.

"That bossy piece of walking aggravation is gonna give me h.e.l.l for being late and it's all your fault. I thought animals always ran downhill when wounded. Why did you run up?"

Darkness closed around him but he still managed to see well enough that he didn't walk into a tree. Shifting the dead weight to a slightly different position to try and relieve the burning in his back, he was feeling pretty good about the day in general and his accomplishments in particular. Until the first fat, icy raindrop landed on his nose.

"No, no, no, no, no! Not today! Not frickin now!"

The weather G.o.ds weren't listening or didn't care. A few drops turned into a steady drizzle that lasted all of about five minutes before becoming a deluge. He silently prayed that the heavier forest growth would protect him from the worst of the storm. Forced to slow down even further, Talon strained to see through the watery, grey-green landscape. The slap of a small limb was his only indicator that he was near the heavier growth. Each step had to be deliberately taken on the decaying vegetation on the forest floor or risk falling on the slippery compost.

Drop the d.a.m.ned eldorak before you break your neck!

Common sense and a strong dose of self-preservation urged him to do just that but he couldn't make himself do it. He would present Shadow with his trophy-proof that he wasn't the same man she dragged out of Cypriana all those weeks ago-or kill himself trying. Stupid? Without a doubt. Crazy? Probably. Determined? Abso-f.u.c.kin-lutely!

Shadow paced the length of the porch. The normal nighttime darkness was intensified by the sudden storm. She was so engrossed in reading the history of Talon's people that she didn't realize how late it was until the storm broke. He should have been back hours ago.

What if he's hurt? I don't even know which direction he went and this blasted rain has destroyed any sign of his pa.s.sing. He could die out there...alone.

"Suck it up and quit whining!" She grumbled to herself. "He's a grown man and he's been taking care of himself for a long time."

She strained to see through the heavy curtain of rain but could barely see the road that was just a few feet from where she stood.

He's blind!

"Not as blind as he was last month." Shadow slapped her hand against her forehead. "What the h.e.l.l do you think you're doing? Arguing with yourself? Do you really want to keep doing that?"

You're answering yourself so what does that say about your mental stability?

"Grrrrr. That man is making me insane!" She yelled into the night. "Where are you, Talon?"

Needing to keep busy, she headed back inside to heat water. He would be wet and cold when he did get back. After making herself a cup of tea, Shadow began the slow process of filling the big wooden tub with water. Some of the houses she explored had indoor plumbing but the connections to any water or heating devices were long gone. With the extra cook pots she scavenged and the four hooks in the fire pit she could keep enough water boiling to quickly heat the tub. She was grateful that the hand pump worked. Hauling water from the sink to the tub was far enough.

"Get your a.s.s back here." She whispered. With nothing left to keep her hands and mind busy, fear quickly grabbed her imagination. Every what if situation she could conceive paraded through her brain in a relentless circle. It was now close to midnight and the rain showed no sign of stopping. She couldn't search for him until sunrise and that was six hours from now.

Shadow had to calm down and quit pacing from the fire pit to the porch or she would be too exhausted to look for Talon. There was one ritual that never failed to bring her peace but she never...ever...started the process if there was the slightest chance someone could catch her at it.

"Why the h.e.l.l should I care if he walks in on me? He's blind-mostly." With a shaky breath, she pulled a chair closer to the fire pit. She was proud there was only a slight tremor in her hands when she pulled her naughty pleasure from deep within her pocket. As far as she knew, no living soul had seen what she was about to do since she was a young girl.

"Dammit, woman, just do it!" Maybe it was a good thing that Talon wasn't here or she'd owe him about half a dozen kisses. With a defiant snort, Shadow tossed the hat she always wore across the room and started pulling the pins that kept her hair out of her way and hidden from view. Muscles relaxed a little more with the removal of each pin. From neck to shoulders to arms and back, tension drained as the long, blonde strands curled around her body. If it didn't have the slight wave at the ends, her hair would reach the middle of her back. It was her one and only vanity and her most closely guarded secret.

She pulled the brush from scalp to tip, relaxing as the snags and tangles disappeared. The one memory she had as a child was of someone brushing her hair every morning and night. She was very young, barely toddling around. Through her early childhood she would pretend that it was her mother's hand on the brush but she had no way of knowing and no one alive to ask. As an adult, it no longer mattered.

Liar.

Time was meaningless as she slowly smoothed every strand, mesmerized by the mult.i.tude of shades shining in the firelight and the peace that filled her soul.

"Now that's a beautiful sight to welcome a man home." Talon's soft voice flowed like warm honey into the room, heavy with desire.

Chapter Fifteen.

"Talon! You're home!" Shadow leaped from the chair and threw herself across the room into his arms. "I was so worried! Where the h.e.l.l have you been? Are you hurt? Let me check."

"Easy, Blue." He laughed softly, wrapping his arms around her waist to keep her still. "I'm just cold, tired, and hungry." Her hair slid through his fingers like the finest spider silk. "You've been keeping secrets, sweetness. This is magnificent." He smoothed it across his cheek, marveling at its softness.

"Talon...uh...we can't...where have you...?"

"I'll tell you everything later. Right now, I just want to hold you." Talon nuzzled her neck where it met her shoulder, inhaling the unique blend of vanilla, summer gra.s.s and gun oil. She must have cleaned her weapon today.

"d.a.m.n." She whispered softly, pushing closer to him.